Ruins of Sauran

Sauran is a medieval settlement in the south of Kazakhstan. During the middle Ages and the Kazakh Khanate, it was one of the main towns near the Syr Darya. A monument of history and culture of Kazakhstan of republican significance.

The settlement is located on the territory of the Sauran district of the Turkestan region, 43 km north-west of the city of Turkestan. The medieval settlement Zhalgyztam is located 7 km to the north-east. The modern aul Sauran is located 14 km southeast of the settlement.

At present, the site is an oval-shaped area 2-2.5 m high, stretched from north-east to south-west for 800 m and from north-west to south-east for 550 m. The site is surrounded by a wall of raw bricks and pakhsa, erected on a stylobate with a height of 2-3 m. To this day, flooded sections of the wall with a height of 3-6 m and the remains of four two-tier towers protruding beyond the line of the wall have been preserved. The towers were once crowned with domes resting on trumpets.

There were two gates in the wall, the width of the passages of which was 5-6 m. The main city gates were located in the north-eastern part of the wall and were fortified by two towers forming a corridor about 20 m long. The second gate, located in the south-eastern part of the wall, was poorly preserved. In addition to the gate, the city could be entered through an arched passage 1.2 m wide and 1.7 m high in the eastern tower.

The main street ran from the north-eastern entrance to the southwest, dividing the city almost in half. At a distance of 150 m from the south-western wall, the street ended at an intersection with a perpendicular street leading to the south-eastern gate from the north-western part of the city. At a distance of 210 m from the north-eastern gate on the left, there was a square, onto which the cathedral mosque and madrasah overlooked. The buildings on the square were built of baked bricks and faced with multi-coloured glazed slabs. Not far from the north-eastern gate was the hexagonal building of the khanaka, the Sufi monastery.

The city was surrounded by a ring of suburban buildings of both dense and estate type. The area of the suburb was about four km². The radius of the building ring reached 1600 m. On the territory, there were approximately 350 estates with an average area of about 1 hectare. The area of the largest estates reached 1.8 hectares; the area of the smallest was 0.5 hectares. On the territory of the estates next to the houses, the remains of plots with melons, orchards, vineyards and crops of grain crops are distinguished. In the eastern part of the suburb, there was a festive mosque (namazgakh). From the kyariz system to the present day, there are chains of ventilation wells with a diameter of 5 m, located 12-15 m from each other.

Many of the ruins were poorly preserved, as the locals used them as a source of building materials after the desolation of the city.

Ruins of Sauran

 

suburban buildings